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A report sponsored by the Department of Housing and Urban Development estimated today that the nation’s public housing developments faced $26 billion in unmet needs for repairs and renovations in 2010. Many renovation projects supported by the 2009 Recovery Act’s $4 billion in public housing capital funding were just getting underway when the study was carried out, but even after those projects are done, the unmet need will still stand well above $20 billion, threatening the long-term viability of an important part of the safety net.

To help ensure safe, decent living conditions for the roughly 1 million households in public housing — mostly elderly people, people with disabilities, and working-poor families with children — the local agencies that run these developments need sufficient funds for repairs and renovations.

Many low-income families living in public housing have to cope with crumbling ceilings, faulty plumbing, and other unmet repair needs, the New York Times reported Monday. The main cause is a lack of capital funding to repair and renovate the developments, most of which were built decades ago. Fixing this problem is critical to the long-term success of this essential program.

Today the Washington Post praised a major Obama Administration plan to preserve the nation’s supply of affordable housing, which has shrunk alarmingly in recent years even as the need has grown. While some (including the Post) have concerns about certain aspects of the plan, which is stalled on Capitol Hill, on the whole it deserves strong support.

The House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing tomorrow on an Administration initiative to help preserve the nation’s public housing units, which are both more important and more imperiled than you may realize.